Rick B. & I bivied at Crater Lake. Then we set forth at 3am to climb the beautiful Bell Cord, ~3600' couloir. What a gorgeous day. Of course there were some rocks banging down the mtn side of the narrow chute. It was a long, long way up. Eventually nice step-kicking near top. Amazing views of Pyramid from the 13800' saddle. So Phase 1 complete.
Phase 2 begins. Go up & down Maroon Pk. Trail? So glad we had 2 axes each. We needed them for a couple of snow traverses. No rope yet. The summit trek was a myriad of rock & snow ledges. Nothing too complicated, but just slow & careful. Oh, I've already done S Maroon, so this was not the main objective. The goal of the trip was the Cord, Bells Traverse, & NM. Back to the saddle safely, but tiring quickly. Phase 2 complete.
Now to switch gears. Time for scrambling & rock climbing, above 13800 feet! Phase 3 begins with some fun Class 4 scrambling. On to the 1st crux. People say go around W side to keep it 4th class. Who wants to enter anywhere near those awful gullies? The point of this climb is to do the ridge, not just get across. So the 1st crux is indeed a short 5.4 climb. We did this solo with a spotter, followed by a belayed 2nd. Eventually we get to more fun class 4 scrambling but with don't-look-down exposure. Then on to 2nd crux. Sure enough, need a rope for a nice 5.2 climb. Then on to final expected tougher 3rd crux. Class 4? Where? The W side dihedrals are recommended & probably easier, but we went for the direct line because it looked shorter & easier (to start). Sure enough, to pull one self over the top required some blind holds & fist jams I would easily rate 5.7. Very strenuous. So now we think we're home free. To continue along this ridge crest requires us to pass a giant boulder on W side. Huge exposure, so we pull out rope again for quick belay. Again, home free? No one told us about the 4' drop-off gap in the ridge. Oh wait, there's a cairn to go around on the E side. Uh, oh, the way is blocked by snow, and snow continues until you see the endless drop-off. So we need yet another belay to get around this simple looking obstacle. Home free once again? Now we see the final gendarme we're supposed to bypass on E side. Just a simple trail walk-around. Oh geez, it's all blocked by 50 deg snow. I say climb the damn rock (looks 5.7), but partner recommends we belay & snow climb our way around. So we try the treacherous traverse. Sure enough it goes fine. Finally on to the NM W side ascent. We just scramble up whatever looks good. Std route? Who cares anymore. Phase 3 complete. Weather holding fine. The unranked world-famous North Maroon Peak has been climbed ... I guess the hard way. Or at least conditions made it a lot harder than all those 14ers.com TRs. 70 min traverse, c'mon!
So now to get 4000' down. OMG! The snow is soft. The NM NE ridge is up to our knees. We used a simple combination of axe-belayed plunge-stepping and butt-drenching sliding to get to the 1st gully. The two gullies we're not too bad, just a few axe-belayed snow downclimbs, and 1 major double-axe traverse between the 2 gullies. There were some places with the nice grassy ledges & trail, but most of the descent was a free-for-all. Finally, we're ready for the final 1500' of descent expecting easier trail. Nope. All slushy snow covered, so now we try to invent our own descent. Worst bushwhack ever. We almost pulled the rope out again to rappel the cliffs. Back at camp by 9:30p. Oh yeah, we ran out of water over 4 hrs ago. And we never ate lunch or dinner because the time factor really got to us. And that indeed affected us physically & mentally.
All in all, we had all the right equipment (2 ice axes, crampons, rock gear, 30m rope, harness, helmet), but what really made a significant difference was the simple matter of food & water. Actually we had lots of food, just did not take the time to eat it given our hurry to avoid more darkness.
So our climb of Bell Cord was just a wee bit too early this year given the crazy snow year. Hence my warning info here. Lessons learned about eating/drinking right. And sure enough, some of those unranked peaks are just downright challenging - if you make 'em that way
